District and Club Projects
District and Club Projects
Projects by clubs and districts have a hugely positive impact on the communities they benefit. If you would like to share details of your project, please contact International Resource Group Co-ordintor Drew Hughes.
The Pahar Trust
In 2011, the Pahar Trust Nepal reached and passed the milestone of spending £1million building schools and health posts in the remote Himalayan regions of Nepal. This magnificent sum has built over 60 schools and 3 health posts as well as several smaller related projects. Many Rotary clubs are involved with the trust here in the UK and there are links with several clubs in Nepal. The project manager was introduced to Rotary when Clifton Rotary club visited one of their projects and he has since become a member of the Pokhara Fishtail club.
Perhaps the biggest Rotary involvement to date has been from District 1100 with the completion of a school paid for with donations from many different clubs including Bredon Hill, Evesham and Pershore. Individual clubs such as Hereford, Bristol and Bristol Breakfast have also taken on different projects and will be visiting them in Nepal in the next 4 months.
The Trust uses an old Chinese Proverb as inspiration: if you are thinking 1 year ahead, plant a seed. If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant a tree. If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate the people.
Every project with the Pahar Trust needs the full support of the local community they must provide land, haul building materials around and break rocks by hand to make aggregate. They therefore feel a real ownership of the project. Much work is done to improve and maintain standards in the schools and they consistently outperform local government schools. A friendship links scheme with schools in the UK also helps especially when pupils visit their twin schools high in the mountains.
Clifton Rotary has been involved in a couple of health posts now and is very pleased with the work being done by these nurse or community medical assistant-led primary care centres. There are many opportunities to become involved with the Trust. £10,000 can build a health post and schools cost from £20,000 depending on size. Visit the website for more information
First Steps Himalaya
This project is sponsored by District 1010. In August 2011, the Sangachok project reached its second anniversary. Many of the original children have started school and are doing well. 2011 was been a year of incredible growth for the trust and with plans in 2012 to build several more centres and establish a large number of satellite services. First Steps Himalaya aims to have 90 centres in Sindhupalchok district alone by 2015.
Projects are expanding to support of primary schools. Currently, funds are provided for two primary school teachers and provide teacher training at ten schools in the area. Volunteer teachers are doing a fantastic job sharing their knowledge on child friendly methods with early childhood staff as well as local school teachers. More trainers are due in Nepal to continue this excellent work.Child sponsorship is very important to success. Sponsorship enables a continuation to deliver high quality pre-school education for the children as well as provide education to their families. For the price of a newspaper, lives of children are changed forever.
There are many ways to support First Steps Himalaya. Visit the website for more information.